What is Izmir like?
 

We are thinking of going to Izmir from Istanbul in Sept. Is it worth it? Beaches? Or is it overrated? <BR> <BR>Thanks for your help!

Jonathan hi! <BR>Did you make any research on Izmir yet? It is a loud, not real pretty city with a lot of traffic and over 1'000'000 inhabitants. Is that where you want to spend your holidays? There are things to visit, but definitely not a place for beach life. <BR>After Instanbul and Ankara (capital) it is most probably in third place regarding population.

We landed at the Ismir airport and bypassed the city. You want to go to Esphesus, which is over an hour away. There you will see the best Roman ruins and only 1/2 hr. from the ruins you will find many five star resort hotels. We stayed at the Princess which Pasha tours booked for us even though we were independent travelers. Any travel agent in Istanbul can find you a resort hotel. We had three meals a day, beautiful swimming pools, etc. for $70 for the two of usin 2000. The bus to the ruins left from the road in front of the hotel and there were also taxis. There is also a seacoast town about 1/2 hr. from here called Kad(look up the rest of the word in any guide book. We found this to large with to many visitors and we were glad we stayed on the road between the coast and the ruins.

Hi Jonathan, We were in Izmir for 2 days this June. That was 1 day too many. I'm not being mean either. Its just a large city, with not much historical importance. The only 2 areas to hang out are the Cordon which is resturants and bars beachside, and the Alcansar which is just a nice neighborhood with resturants and shops. It can all be seen in 1 day. I suggest flying into Izmir and find transportation to either Seljuk or Kusadasi which is a resort town. Both are much closer to Ephesus, and have a nicer vacation atmosphere.

Ursula, Mimi and Mary <BR> <BR>Thank you so much for your help. I would hate to have made a mistake and spent time in an undesirable location. <BR> <BR>:) <BR>Jonathan

I just read an earlier Izmir post that recommended both of these cities to visit outside Izmir: Seljuk or Kusadasi. Anyone traveled to either place? Thanks again.

Seljuk is a small town with a great museum and is very near Ephesus. Actually I liked it much better then Kusadasi, which is a large resort town, on the Aegean. Its where all the cruise ships dock so its hopping a whole lot more then Seljuk.

It's been an age since I was in Turkey, but Izmir was just a big, congested city that held little historical or cultural interest for us - though we did meet up with some Turks our age at the time and had an absolutely wonderful evening and night to remember. We never went to the beach there. Seljuk has a great museum - get there if you can. Kushadasi was, on the other hand, a nothing town when I was there, 20 years ago - it's now a resort,eh? Boy! Times have changed. Ephesus was well worth the trip, even then, when there were folks with wheelbarrows carting off hunks of what would logically have ended up in any good museum in the world. We were amazed at the town itself, but more amazed at the lax attitude, back then, of the site's staff, who were literally tossing amazing artifacts into the trash heap. I hope someone retrieved them.